The Wild: No Playoffs. No Coach. Big Problem?

Image via WikipediaThe Minnesota Wild ended their 2010-11 NHL season with a 5-3 win at home over the Dallas Stars.  The next day, coach Todd Richards was let go after two seasons.

The Wild ended up with 39 wins, 35 losses and eight overtime points, which adds up to 86.  That's good enough for third place in the Northwest division, but not for a playoff spot in the competitive Western Conference.

This was not all Richards' fault, because he was doing the best he could with the team that was put in front of him.  But when you have a bad finish--eight consecutive losses in March and a lousy home record--in an otherwise so-so season that results in missing the playoffs for the third straight year, changes need to be made.

Well, it's going to be difficult to make those changes when a team like the Wild is stuck between a rock and a hard place, thanks to the blessings and curses of the Jacques Lemaire (who retired--again--as New Jersey Devils coach)-Doug Risebrough era.  General manager Chuck Fletcher and owner Craig Leipold will have to find a way to build a team with unrestricted free agents, a limited amount of homegrown talent (though their minor league team in Houston is doing well) and not much money to work with.

Whoever becomes the next Wild coach will have a lot of expectations place on him.  Such as:  Getting the most out of his players.  Making the playoffs.  And winning the respect of the multitudes who still sell out Xcel Energy Center.  Is that too much to ask?

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Now a word about the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin Wednesday.  Has Sidney Crosby's concussion doomed the Pittsburgh Penguins' chances?  When is Alexander Ovechkin coming back from whatever it is he's coming back from?  What will come first in the Boston Bruins/Montreal Canadiens series--a goal or a brawl?  How can the Chicago Blackhawks repeat as Cup champions when they needed the Wild to beat Dallas to get into the playoffs?  Will the Vancouver Canucks be as good in the playoffs as they were in the regular season, when they all but dominated the league?

When the smoke clears in June, the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings will be playing for the Stanley Cup.

The Ghost of Greg Norman Haunts Augusta

Image via WikipediaThe Masters usually brings out the best and worst in golfers, no matter how much the folks at Augusta National try to dress it up for their patrons and for their enablers at CBS and ESPN.  This year was no exception.

At times it seemed like nobody wanted to win this tournament, what with several different golfers bunched together on the leader board and none of them taking control.  Then Charl Schwartzel came out of nowhere to win the Masters by two strokes, on the fiftieth anniversary of his fellow South African Gary Player winning the first of his Green Jackets.

Adam Scott and Jason Day were two Australians trying to become the first from their country to win this tournament.  But just like the man they grew up watching, Greg Norman, they would finish in a tie for second at -12.

Another uncomfortable reminder of Norman at Augusta was Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who led the tournament for the first three rounds before imploding in spectacular fashion in the last one.  Big things are predicted for the young man touted as the Future of Golf, but first he has to avoid becoming the Next Norman.

The youngest person to win a Masters, Tiger Woods, has not been himself on the golf course lately.  He tried to remedy that with some big shots to pull into a tie for the lead on Sunday, but his putter went south on him in a way that has been all too familiar during his long, strange odyssey off the pedestal he was put on.  Woods ended up tied for fourth with two others at -10.

We should mention that Norman has won many tournaments around the world during his career, and could very well have been a Masters champion had it not been for some strange goings-on that resulted in someone else winning the Green Jacket.

As CBS' Jim Nantz likes to say, the Masters are "a tradition like no other".  This was a tournament like no other.

Wolves, Wild Flip The Dial

Image via WikipediaThe landscape of Twin Cities radio sports has changed again.  This time it's Minnesota's two winter pro sports teams exchanging signals.

The NBA Timberwolves, whose games have been broadcast on KFAN (and its predecessor at 1130 AM, WDGY) since the franchise began in 1989--with a brief sojourn at Bob 106 FM, have switched to WCCO-AM beginning next season.

The NHL Wild, whose games have been broadcast on WCCO since the franchise began in 2000, will be moving to KFAN next season.

The Wolves, despite their record and reputation, may have gotten the better of the deal by moving to WCCO because of their 50,000-watt clear channel facility.  Better promotion, too, with no conflicts from other teams.

Speaking of Clear Channel, hockey fans will certainly follow the Wild to KFAN.  But they need an FM signal to make up for the lack of nighttime coverage.  CC could use one of the five FM stations they already own.  Maybe KTLK or KQQL?

Now that the smoke seems to have cleared, here's who broadcasts what:

KFAN (1130)  Wild, Vikings and Gopher football

KSTP (1500)  Twins, Gopher hockey and basketball (men's and women's)

WCCO (830)  Timberwolves

Only the Vikings haven't changed stations in the past decade, and they could be next.  If they're still here, that is.

Obviously, with all the problems radio is facing, somebody still thinks broadcast rights to pro and college sports are a wise investment.

The Final Fours: Not What You Expected

Image via WikipediaThe college basketball season ended with two surprise champions, proving either that parity reigns or that the quality isn't what it used to be.

Men's Championship:  Conneticut 53, Butler 41

This was not a game for the ages.  The Huskies won their third NCAA men's title at Houston by shutting down a Butler team that was done in by its own lousy shooting.  Both teams set scoring records in the wrong direction that date back to the 1940s.

Conneticut coach Jim Calhoun at 68 became the oldest man to win a title.  Which is quite a feat since the basketball program also happens to face sanctions from the NCAA for alleged violations.

For Butler, this was their second consecutive appearance in the finals, both times as the long shot.  If this keeps up, maybe we should start mentioning the Indianapolis school in the same sentence as the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills.  Both of those football teams lost four Super Bowls each.

Women's Championship:  Texas A&M 76, Notre Dame 70

Everybody thought Stanford and Conneticut would play for the national championship in Indianapolis.  Instead, they were beaten in the semifinals by Texas A&M and Notre Dame, in that order.  This resulted in an entertainingly close matchup between the Aggies and Fighting Irish that was better than anyone expected.

Still, this season will be remembered for the dominance of the Conneticut Huskies, who have won two consecutive NCAA titles.  The loss to Notre Dame may have deprived coach Geno Auriemma and his best player Maya Moore of another title, but it also means that there is some semblance of parity in women's college basketball.

Nonetheless, hardware is coming home to the University of Conneticut.  Just not the ones Huskies fans expected.

Twins '11: Getting To The "Next Level"

Image via WikipediaThe Minnesota Twins enter the 2011 Major League Baseball season as the defending American League Central division champions two years running.  Since they haven't made it past the first round of the postseason since 2002, that's like saying you have the best pie in the entire county, but it wasn't good enough to compete in the State Fair.

Let's start with the pitching.  Carl Pavano, Nick Blackburn and Francisco Liriano are the acknowledged aces of the staff.  But Liriano hasn't been the same pitcher since surgery took him out of one season, so some "experts" are encouraging the Twins  to trade him before he enters free agency.

As for the relievers, Joe Nathan's year off due to Tommy John surgery prompted the Twins to get Matt Capps from the Washington Nationals in mid-season and made him their closer.  Now Nathan is back in his old job, but could always be replaced by Capps should he falter.  Then again . . . Capps blew a ninth inning save opportunity in a pre-season game at Atlanta against the Braves, so that doesn't inspire much confidence.

Justin Morneau is slowly recovering from a concussion that kept him out of the second half of the 2010 season, which left some wondering if he'd come back at all.  The doctors have cleared Morneau to play this season, beginning with a return visit to the scene of his injury, Toronto's Rogers Centre.  But the next time he gets his bell rung, maybe he should just retire.

Joe Mauer seems to have the most endorsements this side of Derek Jeter, appearing in commercials for shampoo, video games and Minnesota tourism.  But has he ever played an entire season behind the plate without injury?

Nick Punto, Pat Neshek and J.J. Hardy are among those who are now former Twins.  The team instead spent some of its Target Field money on a Japanese baseball star named Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who will play second base.  Nishioka, like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideo Matsui before him, will have an entourage of media from his home country chronicling his every move.  Japan needs a distraction right now.

This year, manager Ron Gardenhire's crew will try to get to "the next level" (whatever that means), but they have to win the division first.  The Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers have improved their rosters to the point where it's possible the Twins could be watching the playoffs on TV, instead of losing to the New York Yankees again.

Our division picks:

American League East  New York Yankees
                               Central  Chicago White Sox
                               West  Texas Rangers
                               Wild Card  Boston Red Sox

National League East  Philadelphia Phillies
                             Central  Cincinnati Reds
                             West  San Francisco Giants
                             Wild Card  Colorado Rockies

Fran Tarkenton Talks NFL Lockout and CBA

Ten Minus Four Equals New Hockey Conference

For those of you who have always thought the Big Ten conference should expand into men's hockey, your wish may come true.

If the conference gives its blessing to the athletic directors' proposal, six of the Big Ten's twelve schools (strange as it sounds) that offer hockey programs will be in the same league, starting with the 2013-14 season.  They are:  Minnesota, Wisconsin (from the WCHA), Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State (from the CCHA) and Penn State.

The conference exists only because Penn State is adding varsity hockey in a couple of years, and the Big Ten requires at least six schools to make the league competitive.

One beneficiary of a new hockey conference is the Big Ten Network, which will try to slide as many games as possible in between college basketball doubleheaders.

The WCHA (which just added Nebraska-Omaha and Bemidji State this past season) and the CCHA will be losing their biggest-name schools in their largest markets.  Not to worry.  They'll still get to play their Big Ten rivals in non-conference games.

As for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, who have been a member of the WCHA (and its predecessors) since the 1950s, talk of the future may be a good distraction from the present.

The Gophers have not only failed to appear in the WCHA's Final Five (won this year by North Dakota), but also did not qualify for the NCAA playoffs for the third consecutive year.  The Frozen Four finals are scheduled for St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center this year, just so you know.

Don Lucia, despite numerous calls for him to step down, is expected to remain as Minnesota's coach for the foreseeable future.  His teams have been plagued recently by injuries, mediocre play and defections by underclassmen for the NHL (the latest being Aaron Ness, who signed with the New York Islanders).  There's also been plenty of criticism of how Lucia has handled his players, which usually consists of the pick of Minnesota's hockey crop.

Minnesotans expect a lot out of their only major university's athletic programs.  They do tend to cut a little slack when it comes to football and men's basketball, which haven't won anything in years.  But failing to excel in hockey, no matter what conference they're in, doesn't cut it in a state where the sport is a birthright.